Truth: Solution to black America's moral poverty

Jesse Lee Peterson is the most courageous, outspoken critic of the "civil rights" establishment in America today. Raised without his father on a plantation near Tuskegee, Alabama, during the Jim Crow era, Peterson has lived a part of America's history few have experienced. After a spiritual transformation, Peterson founded BOND, a nationally recognized nonprofit organization dedicated to "Rebuilding the Family by Rebuilding the Man." Peterson is also the founder of The BOND Leadership Academy, a private school in Los Angeles. He's a radio talk-show host, speaker and author of "SCAM: How the Black Leadership Exploits Black America, and From Rage to Responsibility." In addition to writing a weekly column for WND, Peterson appears as a media commentator on Fox News Channel, CNN and other national TV and radio networks. For more information, visit www.bondinfo.org.

Last week, I wrote in this space that it was the lack of moral character and dependence on government that cost blacks when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, not President Bush or racism. Since then, I’ve been deluged by e-mails – overwhelmingly positive – repeatedly making the same point: I said what white Americans know to be true, but are afraid to say.

As it was put in one e-mail, “I thought along the same lines as your sentiments, but as a white I would never voice such words for fear of being called a racist and worse.” Another wrote: “Even as I sit here writing to you I’m breaking out in a sweat for fear of being called a racist.” Another said: “That was an excellent article, and unfortunately it could only be said by another African-American.”

This confirmed what I’ve known for a long time: Everyone knows most of black America is screwed up – immoral, dependent, weak – but so few are able to say so. Unfortunate as that is, it is reassuring that we all know the truth. With this in mind, I would like to make the case that all Americans – black and white – should tell the truth when it comes to race and morality.

To do this, I’d like you to consider the recent controversy surrounding Bill Bennett. Last week, a caller to his national radio talk show suggested that abortion could be opposed on the grounds that it has hurt the solvency of Social Security (fewer taxpayers means less Gross National Product, he reasoned). Bennett took issue with this ends-justify-the-means form of argumentation, and challenged it with a hypothetical: (referencing statistics in the book “Freakonomics”):

I do know that it’s true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could, if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down. That would be an impossible, ridiculous, and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down. So these far-out, these far-reaching, extensive extrapolations are, I think, tricky.

Bennett was immediately attacked by Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, the NAACP, the National Association of Black Journalists, and many others. His comments were labeled “racist.”

Of course, no one on this list of elite whites and angry liberal blacks could possibly explain how Bennett’s comments were racist. Nor could anyone show that the comments were false. The reason is simple: They weren’t racist. They were true.

That is just the point: The truth doesn’t matter to these people. That is why all should tell the truth to black America.

Bennett didn’t say anything objectionable, yet he was attacked. He was attacked by people whose only purpose is to destroy, by people who don’t care who they destroy. Whether you tell the truth or stay silent, they will go after you. They need no provocation.

Consider this analogy. There is a movie in theaters now called “Grizzly Man.” It’s about a man who spent several summers “making friends” with Alaskan grizzly bears. He gave the grizzlies names, sang to them, told them he loved them. Then the grizzlies ate him.

Not surprising, of course. Be as nice as you want; at the end of the day, grizzlies are grizzlies – wild animals that will kill you when it suits them.

Evil is the same way. No one needs to provoke Kennedy, Dean, Reid, or the NAACP. They serve the side of destruction. That’s just what they do.

No matter what you do, no matter how nice you try to be, no matter how genuinely you try to have a dialogue, no matter how much money you give, evil will never cease to be evil. Liberals, black and white, will attack conservative white Republicans as racists regardless. Ask Bill Bennett.

Or ask President Bush. He’s invested more government money in black America than Bill Clinton. He’s put more black Americans in prominent leadership positions than Bill Clinton. He’s been a fine moral example, unlike Bill Clinton. It doesn’t matter. Evil people love Bill Clinton because he is one of them. Those who oppose President Bush hate him because he’s good. They will forever oppose him for this reason. Just recently, Congressman Charles Rangel called President Bush the modern-day “Bull” Connor.

Do you think Charles Rangel and those like him will let you off the hook, whether you tell the truth or not? Guess again.

When all is said and done, you’re left with two options:

Tell black America the truth. Accept that it won’t always be met pleasantly, but that you’re standing for what’s right, you are exposing lies, helping truth gain ground, and inspiring others to do the same. Or,

Stay silent. Let evil do what it wants. It will strike, of course, despite your silence. Only this way it goes unopposed, gains ground, and the good lose heart.

Is there really a choice?

Editor’s note:

BOND, the Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny and the Heritage Foundation will host “The New Black Vanguard Conference II: Reclaiming Our Destiny” on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2005, 1-4 p.m. EST, at the Heritage Foundation’s Allison Auditorium (214 Massachusetts Avenue, N.E., Washington, D.C.) to address a variety of issues, including the moral crisis in black America.